Posts

‘Citadel’ Trailer: Fear The Youth Gone Wild By Russ Fischer/March 8, 2012 4:00 pm EST The SXSW Midnight entry Citadel is an Irish film that trades on very familiar horror/thriller subject matter: basic fear of generational aggression. There are plenty of films about roving gangs of kids/teens committing crimes and doing violence, and the basic fear even crosses over into real life media through reports of hoodie gangs and ‘wilding’ kids that show up every once in a while in major cities....

‘Contraband’ Scribe Rewriting Timur Bekmambetov’s ‘Moby Dick’ For Lower Budget By Angie Han/June 11, 2012 3:31 pm EST It’s been a while since we’ve received any significant updates on Timur Bekmambetov’s action-oriented Moby Dick adaptation, but the project’s apparently still simmering over at Universal and has just brought in a new writer to help with one specific stumbling block: the budget. Over the past year, we’ve seen several big action adaptations get scrapped or put on hold for financial reasons, including Disney’s Lone Ranger, Warner Bros....

‘Life Of Pi’ Moves To Thanksgiving; Vince Vaughn And Owen Wilson’s ‘The Internship’ Lands Next Summer By Angie Han/May 24, 2012 9:00 am EST So Life of Pi has now been shifted again to November 21, where it should have a bit more room to breathe — especially since Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity and Carl Erik Rinsch’s 47 Ronin just vacated that same slot to move into 2013. The new date puts Lee’s 3D adaptation of Yann Martel’s acclaimed novel against David O....

‘Moneyball’ Trailer Is A Little ‘Oceans Eleven,’ A Lot ‘Friday Night Lights’ By Russ Fischer/June 16, 2011 12:15 pm EST Did you skip the awful Entertainment Tonight presentation of the trailer for Bennett Miller’s Moneyball, which came complete with unwanted additional voiceover? So did I, but we’re all in luck now, as Sony has released a clean HD version of the trailer to Yahoo. Check it out below. I like the arc of this trailer a lot — there are classic underdog sports themes going on, as Oakland As GM Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) struggles for more money or, failing that, a strategy to build a winning team in the face of old-man thinking behind the scenes....

‘Sherlock Holmes’ Partners Guy Ritchie And Robert Downey. Jr. Go To War In ‘Call Of Duty Commercial’ By Russ Fischer/Oct. 29, 2012 12:23 pm EST Activision is going to make a mint with the latest Call of Duty game, Call of Duty, Black Ops II, so it can afford to spend a mint making and promoting it. In addition to the general slate of talent assembled to created the game (which includes screenwriter David S....

‘Star Trek 2:’ JJ Abrams Talks 3D, New Cast Members Revealed, Shooting Starts This Week By Germain Lussier/Jan. 9, 2012 12:30 pm EST The theatrical adventures of the Starship Enterprise finally continue this week. Speaking at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, director J.J. Abrams confirmed Star Trek 2 will begin shooting on film January 12, with a 3D post-conversion planned for post-production. But that’s not all. Abrams also talked about the film’s relation to the original series, and two new cast members – Thor actor Joseph Gatt and 24 actress Nazneen Contractor – were announced....

‘The Avengers’ Extended Super Bowl Spot By Russ Fischer/Feb. 5, 2012 5:19 pm EST In October, Marvel Studios dropped the first trailer for Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, which stars Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson. Since then we’ve seen quite a few stills and a bit of extra footage, all of which promises a union of characters from the Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man films, and a lot of destruction in New York City as the city is attacked by the army of Loki (Tom Hiddleston)....

‘Zodiac’ Writer James Vanderbilt Sells ‘White House Down’ To Sony, Will Polish ‘RoboCop’ By Russ Fischer/March 30, 2012 10:00 am EST James Vanderbilt hit the screenwriter big time when he wrote Zodiac for David Fincher, and he was eventually tapped to work on the Spider-Man series for Sony. Now he’s one of a few people credited on The Amazing Spider-Man. He has developed a working relationship with the studio, doing work on the Total Recall remake as well....

A Cast Of Kings S2E09 - Blackwater By David Chen/May 28, 2012 7:00 pm EST A Cast of Kings is a podcast featuring recaps and reviews of each week’s episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones. This week, Joanna and Dave discuss the second season’s ninth episode, Blackwater. E-mail us and let us know what you thought of the episode, as well as of the podcast, at acastofkings@gmail.com. You can find every episode of the show at gameofthronespodcast....

Breaking Dawn Set For November 2011; Two-Film Split Still Undetermined By Russ Fischer/May 5, 2010 6:57 am EST Because I know you’re all hanging on this info: Summit has scheduled Breaking Dawn, the last film in The Twilight Saga, for release on November 18, 2011. For those keeping track, that’s a year and a half after the release of Eclipse, the third film in the series, which makes Breaking Dawn the chapter that will have the longest production schedule since the series began....

Casting Bits: Elizabeth Debicki In ‘The Great Gatsby’, Katie Holmes And Chace Crawford In ‘Responsible Adults’, Alexander Skarsgard In ‘What Maisie Knew’ By Angie Han/May 12, 2011 9:00 am EST Up to this point, Baz Luhrmann’s been filling his 3D adaptation of The Great Gatsby with well-known talents: Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, and of course, Leonardo DiCaprio as the titular Gatsby. So it’s surprising and intriguing that the latest addition to his cast is a newcomer — Elizabeth Debicki, who comes straight out of Australia’s Victorian College of the Arts....

Casting Notes: Danny McBride In Bullies, Sam Worthington Offered This Means War; Nicole Kidman And Nicolas Cage In Trespass; Clive Owen And Nicole Kidman In Hemingway & Gellhorn By Russ Fischer/June 18, 2010 9:19 am EST I love seeing Danny McBride break out as a legit talent — The Foot Fist Way, Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express got him in front of audiences, but the HBO show Eastbound and Down really made his name....

Cool Stuff: Shepard Fairey’s ‘They Live’ Mondo Poster By Germain Lussier/June 9, 2011 6:00 pm EST If you know anything about artist Shepard Fairey or John Carpenter’s film They Live, you’d be hard pressed to come up with a better marriage of artist and material. For the first time ever, the Alamo Drafthouse and their art boutique Mondo were able to get Fairey to create a poster and, of course, they chose They Live, which is screening Thursday night in Austin....

By Russ Fischer/Aug. 10, 2010 1:00 pm EST We seem to be cresting this current wave of superhero and comic book derived movies. It’s getting to the point where Matthew Vaughn’s take on the subgenre seems like the correct one — how long can this possibly last? The haven for hero tales may be smaller, stranger films that don’t rely on expensive licensing and can be made for a lot less money....

Gatchaman Trailer: A Look At A Movie We May Never See By Russ Fischer/April 19, 2010 12:12 pm EST Of all the animation properties from the ’70s and ’80s that have been targeted for remakes and updated feature versions, the only one for which I feel the least bit of nostalgia is Gatchaman. It was seen in the US in heavily edited and reworked form as Battle of the Planets, which was designed to appeal to kids as, essentially, a combination of elements from Star Wars and Marvel Comics....

Geek Deals: How I Met Your Mother: Seasons 1-4 For $60, Daria: The Complete Animated Series For $27 By Peter Sciretta/Sept. 9, 2010 11:00 am EST We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Image Comics’ Underwater Thriller ‘The Vault’ Optioned For Film Development By Russ Fischer/Aug. 5, 2011 10:00 am EST The latest comic book story to get a development deal is The Vault, an Image Comics title written by Sam Sarkar and drawn by Garrie Gastonny. This one has a better chance of making it to screens than most, as Sam Sarkar is also an exec at Johnny Depp’s production company Infinitum Nihil, and one of the producers on the film is Graham King (The Tourist, Rango, Hugo)....

Kate Beckinsale Offered A Lead Role In ‘Total Recall’ By Adam Quigley/April 21, 2011 8:26 am EST In news that should surprise no one familiar with the actress’s personal background, Kate Beckinsale has been offered a central role in Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman’s remake/update of Total Recall. She’s allegedly up for the part of Lori, the wife to Colin Farrell’s leading man Quaid. In Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 telling of the story (also based on the Philip K....

Lars Von Trier Begins Filming ‘Melancholia,’ Reveals Vague Plot Details By Russ Fischer/July 29, 2010 6:36 am EST We’ve known very little about Melancholia, the next film from Lars Von Trier and the follow-up to his festival firebrand Antichrist. He’s promised “no more happy endings” and the film has been called a “psychological disaster movie,” but beyond that we’ve had almost nothing to go on. Melancholia recently began production, and Trier held a press conference to mark the occasion....

MGM Acquires ‘Where’s Waldo?’ Rights For Live-Action Film By Angie Han/Nov. 7, 2011 4:00 pm EST Days after the announcement of a Jennifer Lopez-produced Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? film comes news that the similarly elusive Waldo, of the Where’s Waldo? books, is getting his own big-screen project as well. MGM has acquired the film rights to the Classic Media property, with an eye on producing a live-action “family adventure” about the character....